Pacers’ Haliburton should take notes on Steph Curry and the Warriors

Tyrese Haliburton is the face of the Indiana Pacers. And early returns in his career seem to indicate that he will be a top-tier point guard for a long time. Unfortunately, the Pacers are currently sitting at home watching the playoffs. And last night, Haliburton was hopefully paying attention.

Steph Curry expertly carved up a Sacramento Kings team with a 50 point performance in Game 7 of a playoff series. He dominated the Kings in all facets of the game and showed the world why he has been the most dominant player in basketball for the better part of the last decade. And he is the prototype of what Haliburton should look at if he wants to accomplish historic goals.

Tyrese already is the passer Steph is but is probably never going to be the same level of shooter. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t take notes on the all-time-greats performance against the kings.

1. Haliburton needs to get more selfish with the basketball. 

Tyrese has a tendency to defer, which makes sense. He is amazing at getting teammates open and giving them good looks. But at some point, he needs to step back and realize that he is the best option of getting a bucket. Pass-first point guards don’t often become all-time great players. Good players for sure, but not all-timers.

2. Haliburton needs to get feisty on defense like Curry. 

Now I’m not saying that Curry is an amazing defender, but he’s a net positive on the court. Curry is constantly outhustling his peers on the court and showing why effort can go a long way on the defensive side of the ball.

3. Haliburton needs to improve his off-ball rolling off of screens and movement in general. 

As much as Curry is a wizard with the ball in his hands, his off-ball movement is a thing of beauty. He is almost never standing around waiting for the play to develop. Haliburton needs to continue to work to keep moving whenever other ball-heavy players such as Mathurin have the rock.